In recent news, it has come to light that CurrentC by MXC may have a contract with many of the big retailers that prohibits them from using other mobile payment operators. This became big news because of the introduction of Apple Pay using NFC. The reasoning behind CurrentC is for merchants to avoid credit card transaction fees by doing ACH transactions directly to a bank account. All security issues aside, I understand retailers desire to get rid of these fees. However, I also realize that it is part of doing business and the convenience for the customer. As Apple is heavily invested with banks and credit card processors right now, I think this is the perfect opportunity for Google to get ahead of the NFC war. Google currently has Google Wallet where a user can put money into, much like a bank account. Using this, Google could potentially offer a much lower transaction fee to merchants as a credit card company does not have to be involved at this point. In return, the merchant could provide more detailed information about the purchase which Google could data mine. While many consumers would be concerned about Google knowing their purchase history, I personally would love for Google to mine my purchase data. A whole new service line could be opened where Google finds better prices on the items you commonly buy and integrated into their current shopping services. NFC isn’t dead just yet, it’s really just beginning.